spectr17
11-29-2002, 05:28 PM
In search of Chief Solano
Suisun warrior vital part of local history
Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle Outdoors Writer
November 21, 2002
Fairfield -- Ancestors go into the earth. You can visit by tracing their path. Grasp how they arose from the ground, and the way in which they re-entered it. How were things for them? Compare it to the way things stand for us. In this manner, we gather food for thought.
Chief Solano should be seen as a prime mover in California history. Friendship of this mighty Suisun warrior proved crucial to Mariano G. Vallejo in his settlement of the region north of San Francisco Bay. Success of the canny, amiable Vallejo was vital to California's largely peaceful entry into the United States. .
STATUE
A big bronze statue in Fairfield offers only an approximation of the legendary chieftain. Mostly, it's a generic, romanticized "Hiawatha."
Even so, this monument is a good spot to start a search for Chief Solano.
California sculptor William Gordon Huff was awarded a state contract for the 12-foot statue in 1933. For five years, it stood atop a knoll near Interstate 80. Repeated vandalization caused it to be moved to the northwest corner of Union Avenue and West Texas Street, near Solano County's Environmental Management office.
Huff made Solano loom larger than life. That muscular Suisun tribesman was indeed six feet, seven inches tall -- and towered over most men of his day. The sculptor did consult with famed UC anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, so the loincloth, feathers and bow are accurate details.
The fact that his bow is lowered, and open right hand raised, suggests Solano's most significant decision: To stop his fight with Vallejo and become an ally.
Neither the city nor county has dignified this statue with plaque or nameplate. But that does impel one to seek further. .
VILLAGE
The Suisunes, known as the Wappo, were a subset of the Wintun people, members of the Penutian language group that dominated the Central Valley.
A principal Suisun village was Yulyul, "the place of the setting sun," lying against a southern tip of the Vaca Mountains. You can reach it easily by driving, bicycling or hiking. Go west from the Solano statue on Texas, under Interstate 80, continue on Rockville Road a total of 4.6 miles. The hamlet of Rockville covers the Yulyul site.
In 1817, a Mexican force under Lt. Jose Sanchez crossed the Carquinez Strait on tule rafts, guiding swimming cavalry horses by their bridles. They fought a heavy battle against the Suisunes, eventually surrounding them at Yulyul. After a three-day siege, Chief Molica supposedly told his tribe to flee subjugation by setting huts aflame and dying in the fires. This could be a victor's version. On a raid seven years earlier, soldiers under Gabriel Moraga had intentionally used fire to massacre Suisunes in their huts.
There's speculation that a tall, teenage youth returned from a hunting trip only to find charred remnants of his village. He later became the great war chief Sem Yeto -- whom whites would name Solano -- and united scattered Patwin tribes in a potent alliance against the settlers. .
OVERLOOK
Go 1.8 miles farther west on Rockville Road. Find the entrance to Rockville Hills Park on your left. Open from 8 a.m. to dusk, the park's 600 acres holds nine miles of trail, winding through blue oak and buckeye. There are mountain bike scars, shortcuts skidded down the steep hills. But you'll also see California quail scuttle through the fallen leaves, and evidence that the vanished people of Yulyul came here often.
Bear south, then east, then north, moving toward a rocky knoll overlooking the Yulyul site. Under the oaks, acorn grinding troughs are worn deep in rock outcrops. It's easy to imagine women working here, enjoying the breeze, watching peaceful blue plumes twist up from cookfires below and beyond, seeing vast green plains and marshes full of elk, deer and grizzly, clouds of water birds settling on the marshes, glittering creeks choked by salmon and steelhead runs.
That was only 200 years ago.
"Before whites arrived, we had much food, and very good, without much work, " remembered Isidora Filomena, one of Solano's 11 wives.
A sentinel on these heights likely observed the approach of Sanchez' troops.
Afterward, perhaps Solano brooded up here above ashes of his village, then plotted a course of action. .
BATTLEGROUND
Solano's original name, Sem Yeto, has been translated as, "Fierce One of the Brave Hand." This reeks of Victorian license. Yeto is simply a Suisun term for war chief. A more direct translation might be, "Tough Guy."
Solano visited his enemies at the Sonoma mission, cleverly seizing a chance to absorb their language and ways. He may or may not have joined in subsequently burning that mission and chasing off its founder. By 1835, Solano had brought many area tribes under his leadership, making clear his plan to drive away the rest of the Mexicans.
His primary foe would be Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. A native "Californio," Vallejo was born at Monterey in 1808. His talent was obvious. A cadet at age 15, just six years later he became commandant of San Francisco's Presidio. Vallejo guided secularization of the Sonoma mission in 1834, then applied for a huge land grant of neighboring acreage to establish his own fief.
Vallejo led a force of 200 soldiers against Solano at another Suisun village, in 1835. It lay on Suscol Creek, in a broad plain about seven miles north of the present town of Vallejo.
From Rockville Hills Park, take Rockville Road west, turn left on Green Valley Road, right on Interstate 80, right on Highway 12, right on Highway 29, then (just south of the highways 12/221 and 29 junction), exit left on Soscol Ferry Road. Wind 0.7 of a mile mile around to the north (under the freeway) and enter the rest area.
Climb a small rise to stand near "The Grape Crusher," a bronze statue at its summit. Suscol Creek is marked by a line of cottonwoods and oaks to the south. Though unmarked by any memento to it, the vista around you is the battleground.
The first tussle between Vallejo's force and Solano's estimated 4,000 braves left 200 tribesmen dead and many wounded. The Mexicans lost only two dead and a handful wounded. Instead of intimidation, Solano and his people felt heightened rage. Perceiving an ultimate battle for their way of life, area tribes assigned reinforcements.
Vallejo also sent an emergency message, seeking to bolster his own force. Governor Figueroa promised 600 more soldiers. Vallejo had to meet them at Petaluma Creek, so he withdrew 15 miles to the west.
As he joined Figueroa's troops, Vallejo found himself surrounded by as many as 8,000 warriors.
Assessing this order of battle, Solano signaled for parley. He strode from the hills and met Vallejo under the spreading branches of a large oak. The chief was clad in a loincloth, red face paint, black feathers and a strand of wooden beads. Vallejo was resplendent in a red and blue wool uniform with silver epaulets. Both had been educated by the padres. They likely conversed fluently in Spanish.
Solano said his assembled warriors, in one massive assault, would wipe out the Mexicans. But he acknowledged his losses to superior Mexican arms might be fearsome, causing suffering in all the villages.
So, what exactly was it that Vallejo wanted?
Vallejo said it was his aim to settle the North Bay region, peaceably, if possible.
Solano wished to preserve the villages and his people's way of life. If Vallejo could guarantee that -- and assist Solano in conquering regional tribes who weren't quite as reasonable -- perhaps they could strike a deal.
With a handclasp, they ended the battle, forged an alliance and launched a friendship lasting the rest of their lives. .
MISSION
The Mission of St. Francisco Solano at Sonoma was the last built in America,
and the only one started without Church approval. The impetuous founder, Fray Jose Altimira, established it in 1823, in an area he hoped would be good for converts -- and also serve as bulwark against expansion by the Russians from their coastal outpost at Fort Ross.
Here, young Sem Yato was baptized in 1824, taking the name of mission's patron. Two years later, Altimira, a harsh disciplinarian, was driven out and his wooden chapel torched. A few adobe walls remained. A milder replacement padre, Buenaventura Fortuni, then came to renew the mission.
Vallejo laid out Sonoma plaza, and built his barracks and headquarters. His garrison was composed of both Indians and Mexicans, as was a posse of vaqueros that worked the general's vast, 175,000-acre holdings.
For a decade, Solano and Vallejo went on a hundred campaigns, raids and reprisals, securing the region to their mutual advantage. Anecdotes suggest the pair liked to work in a sort of "good cop/bad cop" duo. Solano performed exploits such as kidnapping a Russian princess from Fort Ross and threatening to lynch an obstreperous British visitor. Suddenly, Vallejo showed up to smooth things over. This sent a message that they were not to be messed with, yet prevented a provocation.
The mission and barracks can be found 11 miles west of the battleground, 1. 1 miles north of the junction of Highway 12 and Napa Road.
Nine miles farther west, at the junction of Highway 116 and Adobe Road near Petaluma, stands the remnants of Vallejo's ranch work center, with many historic displays.
A home Vallejo built for his family after the loss of his empire is just 0. 5 of a mile west of the Sonoma plaza. .
GRAVES
We cannot know how the Suisun culture might have flourished under the Vallejo/Solano alliance. Because in 1837, a man sent to Ft. Ross for new cloth and leather goods also returned with smallpox. In the epidemic that raged, Suisun villages lost all but several hundred members. But Solano lived. Vallejo had him undergo the revolutionary measure of vaccination, along with his own family.
As his people scattered, Solano sold his patrimony to Vallejo for 1,000 pieces of silver in 1842.
Vallejo's empire tottered when the Bear Flag Rebellion erupted June 16, 1846. A band of 33 buckskin-clad Americans, many from Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento, raided Sonoma at dawn, and took Vallejo prisoner. Perhaps recalling Solano's adroit strategy, Vallejo had already prepared for transition to American rule. He had discharged all his soldiers in 1844, and begun to lobby for California's annexation to the United States.
To prevent trouble, it seems he also had sent Solano away into the boondocks. But when a rumor spread from Sutter's Fort that Vallejo had been killed, Solano vanished altogether.
It's easy to conjecture why Bear Flaggers might spread such a rumor. Loss of their top military commander would dishearten Mexican resistance. If the Americans were then accused of malfeasance, they could swiftly produce the living individual.
But Solano, perhaps from overwhelming grief, perhaps from fear he might be next, did not stick around to find out the truth.
Much later, in 1858, the Vallejos received a surprise guest at their elegant Victorian home at the springs of Lachryma Montis. Solano had returned to his stomping grounds. The old pals shared memories of their heyday and the epic tale of Solano's 12 years of wandering. Solano had trekked through Oregon,
past Washington, reaching a place, he said, where first it was light all day, then dark all day.
After reuniting with his friend, Solano traveled to visit the last of the Suisunes, near the Yulyul village site. Here, at the end of an era, amid the twilight of his people, Sem Yeto caught pneumonia and died.
Some say he was buried near an old buckeye tree, between Rockville and Cordelia. Others, that Solano's grave is on an island in Petaluma Creek, in a marsh near Lakeville, or even under the Sonoma plaza. The truth is, he's gone back to the earth, and so is everywhere and nowhere. But Sem Yeto's spirit, and his legend, still strides under the oaks.
E-mail Paul McHugh at pmchugh@sfchronicle.com.
Suisun warrior vital part of local history
Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle Outdoors Writer
November 21, 2002
Fairfield -- Ancestors go into the earth. You can visit by tracing their path. Grasp how they arose from the ground, and the way in which they re-entered it. How were things for them? Compare it to the way things stand for us. In this manner, we gather food for thought.
Chief Solano should be seen as a prime mover in California history. Friendship of this mighty Suisun warrior proved crucial to Mariano G. Vallejo in his settlement of the region north of San Francisco Bay. Success of the canny, amiable Vallejo was vital to California's largely peaceful entry into the United States. .
STATUE
A big bronze statue in Fairfield offers only an approximation of the legendary chieftain. Mostly, it's a generic, romanticized "Hiawatha."
Even so, this monument is a good spot to start a search for Chief Solano.
California sculptor William Gordon Huff was awarded a state contract for the 12-foot statue in 1933. For five years, it stood atop a knoll near Interstate 80. Repeated vandalization caused it to be moved to the northwest corner of Union Avenue and West Texas Street, near Solano County's Environmental Management office.
Huff made Solano loom larger than life. That muscular Suisun tribesman was indeed six feet, seven inches tall -- and towered over most men of his day. The sculptor did consult with famed UC anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, so the loincloth, feathers and bow are accurate details.
The fact that his bow is lowered, and open right hand raised, suggests Solano's most significant decision: To stop his fight with Vallejo and become an ally.
Neither the city nor county has dignified this statue with plaque or nameplate. But that does impel one to seek further. .
VILLAGE
The Suisunes, known as the Wappo, were a subset of the Wintun people, members of the Penutian language group that dominated the Central Valley.
A principal Suisun village was Yulyul, "the place of the setting sun," lying against a southern tip of the Vaca Mountains. You can reach it easily by driving, bicycling or hiking. Go west from the Solano statue on Texas, under Interstate 80, continue on Rockville Road a total of 4.6 miles. The hamlet of Rockville covers the Yulyul site.
In 1817, a Mexican force under Lt. Jose Sanchez crossed the Carquinez Strait on tule rafts, guiding swimming cavalry horses by their bridles. They fought a heavy battle against the Suisunes, eventually surrounding them at Yulyul. After a three-day siege, Chief Molica supposedly told his tribe to flee subjugation by setting huts aflame and dying in the fires. This could be a victor's version. On a raid seven years earlier, soldiers under Gabriel Moraga had intentionally used fire to massacre Suisunes in their huts.
There's speculation that a tall, teenage youth returned from a hunting trip only to find charred remnants of his village. He later became the great war chief Sem Yeto -- whom whites would name Solano -- and united scattered Patwin tribes in a potent alliance against the settlers. .
OVERLOOK
Go 1.8 miles farther west on Rockville Road. Find the entrance to Rockville Hills Park on your left. Open from 8 a.m. to dusk, the park's 600 acres holds nine miles of trail, winding through blue oak and buckeye. There are mountain bike scars, shortcuts skidded down the steep hills. But you'll also see California quail scuttle through the fallen leaves, and evidence that the vanished people of Yulyul came here often.
Bear south, then east, then north, moving toward a rocky knoll overlooking the Yulyul site. Under the oaks, acorn grinding troughs are worn deep in rock outcrops. It's easy to imagine women working here, enjoying the breeze, watching peaceful blue plumes twist up from cookfires below and beyond, seeing vast green plains and marshes full of elk, deer and grizzly, clouds of water birds settling on the marshes, glittering creeks choked by salmon and steelhead runs.
That was only 200 years ago.
"Before whites arrived, we had much food, and very good, without much work, " remembered Isidora Filomena, one of Solano's 11 wives.
A sentinel on these heights likely observed the approach of Sanchez' troops.
Afterward, perhaps Solano brooded up here above ashes of his village, then plotted a course of action. .
BATTLEGROUND
Solano's original name, Sem Yeto, has been translated as, "Fierce One of the Brave Hand." This reeks of Victorian license. Yeto is simply a Suisun term for war chief. A more direct translation might be, "Tough Guy."
Solano visited his enemies at the Sonoma mission, cleverly seizing a chance to absorb their language and ways. He may or may not have joined in subsequently burning that mission and chasing off its founder. By 1835, Solano had brought many area tribes under his leadership, making clear his plan to drive away the rest of the Mexicans.
His primary foe would be Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. A native "Californio," Vallejo was born at Monterey in 1808. His talent was obvious. A cadet at age 15, just six years later he became commandant of San Francisco's Presidio. Vallejo guided secularization of the Sonoma mission in 1834, then applied for a huge land grant of neighboring acreage to establish his own fief.
Vallejo led a force of 200 soldiers against Solano at another Suisun village, in 1835. It lay on Suscol Creek, in a broad plain about seven miles north of the present town of Vallejo.
From Rockville Hills Park, take Rockville Road west, turn left on Green Valley Road, right on Interstate 80, right on Highway 12, right on Highway 29, then (just south of the highways 12/221 and 29 junction), exit left on Soscol Ferry Road. Wind 0.7 of a mile mile around to the north (under the freeway) and enter the rest area.
Climb a small rise to stand near "The Grape Crusher," a bronze statue at its summit. Suscol Creek is marked by a line of cottonwoods and oaks to the south. Though unmarked by any memento to it, the vista around you is the battleground.
The first tussle between Vallejo's force and Solano's estimated 4,000 braves left 200 tribesmen dead and many wounded. The Mexicans lost only two dead and a handful wounded. Instead of intimidation, Solano and his people felt heightened rage. Perceiving an ultimate battle for their way of life, area tribes assigned reinforcements.
Vallejo also sent an emergency message, seeking to bolster his own force. Governor Figueroa promised 600 more soldiers. Vallejo had to meet them at Petaluma Creek, so he withdrew 15 miles to the west.
As he joined Figueroa's troops, Vallejo found himself surrounded by as many as 8,000 warriors.
Assessing this order of battle, Solano signaled for parley. He strode from the hills and met Vallejo under the spreading branches of a large oak. The chief was clad in a loincloth, red face paint, black feathers and a strand of wooden beads. Vallejo was resplendent in a red and blue wool uniform with silver epaulets. Both had been educated by the padres. They likely conversed fluently in Spanish.
Solano said his assembled warriors, in one massive assault, would wipe out the Mexicans. But he acknowledged his losses to superior Mexican arms might be fearsome, causing suffering in all the villages.
So, what exactly was it that Vallejo wanted?
Vallejo said it was his aim to settle the North Bay region, peaceably, if possible.
Solano wished to preserve the villages and his people's way of life. If Vallejo could guarantee that -- and assist Solano in conquering regional tribes who weren't quite as reasonable -- perhaps they could strike a deal.
With a handclasp, they ended the battle, forged an alliance and launched a friendship lasting the rest of their lives. .
MISSION
The Mission of St. Francisco Solano at Sonoma was the last built in America,
and the only one started without Church approval. The impetuous founder, Fray Jose Altimira, established it in 1823, in an area he hoped would be good for converts -- and also serve as bulwark against expansion by the Russians from their coastal outpost at Fort Ross.
Here, young Sem Yato was baptized in 1824, taking the name of mission's patron. Two years later, Altimira, a harsh disciplinarian, was driven out and his wooden chapel torched. A few adobe walls remained. A milder replacement padre, Buenaventura Fortuni, then came to renew the mission.
Vallejo laid out Sonoma plaza, and built his barracks and headquarters. His garrison was composed of both Indians and Mexicans, as was a posse of vaqueros that worked the general's vast, 175,000-acre holdings.
For a decade, Solano and Vallejo went on a hundred campaigns, raids and reprisals, securing the region to their mutual advantage. Anecdotes suggest the pair liked to work in a sort of "good cop/bad cop" duo. Solano performed exploits such as kidnapping a Russian princess from Fort Ross and threatening to lynch an obstreperous British visitor. Suddenly, Vallejo showed up to smooth things over. This sent a message that they were not to be messed with, yet prevented a provocation.
The mission and barracks can be found 11 miles west of the battleground, 1. 1 miles north of the junction of Highway 12 and Napa Road.
Nine miles farther west, at the junction of Highway 116 and Adobe Road near Petaluma, stands the remnants of Vallejo's ranch work center, with many historic displays.
A home Vallejo built for his family after the loss of his empire is just 0. 5 of a mile west of the Sonoma plaza. .
GRAVES
We cannot know how the Suisun culture might have flourished under the Vallejo/Solano alliance. Because in 1837, a man sent to Ft. Ross for new cloth and leather goods also returned with smallpox. In the epidemic that raged, Suisun villages lost all but several hundred members. But Solano lived. Vallejo had him undergo the revolutionary measure of vaccination, along with his own family.
As his people scattered, Solano sold his patrimony to Vallejo for 1,000 pieces of silver in 1842.
Vallejo's empire tottered when the Bear Flag Rebellion erupted June 16, 1846. A band of 33 buckskin-clad Americans, many from Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento, raided Sonoma at dawn, and took Vallejo prisoner. Perhaps recalling Solano's adroit strategy, Vallejo had already prepared for transition to American rule. He had discharged all his soldiers in 1844, and begun to lobby for California's annexation to the United States.
To prevent trouble, it seems he also had sent Solano away into the boondocks. But when a rumor spread from Sutter's Fort that Vallejo had been killed, Solano vanished altogether.
It's easy to conjecture why Bear Flaggers might spread such a rumor. Loss of their top military commander would dishearten Mexican resistance. If the Americans were then accused of malfeasance, they could swiftly produce the living individual.
But Solano, perhaps from overwhelming grief, perhaps from fear he might be next, did not stick around to find out the truth.
Much later, in 1858, the Vallejos received a surprise guest at their elegant Victorian home at the springs of Lachryma Montis. Solano had returned to his stomping grounds. The old pals shared memories of their heyday and the epic tale of Solano's 12 years of wandering. Solano had trekked through Oregon,
past Washington, reaching a place, he said, where first it was light all day, then dark all day.
After reuniting with his friend, Solano traveled to visit the last of the Suisunes, near the Yulyul village site. Here, at the end of an era, amid the twilight of his people, Sem Yeto caught pneumonia and died.
Some say he was buried near an old buckeye tree, between Rockville and Cordelia. Others, that Solano's grave is on an island in Petaluma Creek, in a marsh near Lakeville, or even under the Sonoma plaza. The truth is, he's gone back to the earth, and so is everywhere and nowhere. But Sem Yeto's spirit, and his legend, still strides under the oaks.
E-mail Paul McHugh at pmchugh@sfchronicle.com.